Teachers are sometimes given the impression that their students are technology gurus and that they should immediately throw out everything we have in our toolbox for the sake of technology. Student work doesn't result in the higher order thinking we had hoped for, their projects are "rudimentary displays of their knowledge" and we end up despising the "T" word. Consider this model BEFORE you start adding new technology to your classroom environment: SAMR.

For examples about the SAMR model Click on Kathy Schorck's Guide.

First: Know this–you should only use technology when it expands your teaching. Sure, you want to find opportunities for that to occur, but if it doesn’t, put the keyboard and the class screen aside and continue in whatever method has worked for you in the past. Luckily, Common Core–and many State standards–provide an excellent starter list of seven ways to blend technology into your everyday teaching:

have digital ebooks included in your class library. Treat them exactly as though they were print books. Nothing more; nothing less.

have online libraries included with student resources. Include these as a normal part of their research experience, just like the school library. And if students are going to check a book out of the school library, have them check it out online or research it digitally (if that’s available).

make it clear to students that class presentations can be done digitally–with video, audio, music, or any mixture of digital tools that the student chooses. If the student can ‘sell’ you on the idea that this tool best serves the unique audience, task, and purpose of the project, let them use it. Even if it’s Minecraft.

encourage students to tape class presentations to replay later and/or study from.

allow students to join the class virtually–through Skype or Google Hangouts–if they can’t come to the physical classroom.

make digital research tools like dictionaries and thesauri easily accessible from all digital devices as a reasonable alternative to walking across the classroom to a dictionary that may not be where it used to be.

empower students to solve common tech problems so they can keep moving forward with their learning. These are easy-to-solve troubleshooting issues like the headphones don’t work, the monitor doesn’t work, the browser won’t start, and about 22 other common problems. Teach them the solutions and get out of their way.